Candlestick Park
San Francisco, CA
June 30, 2003
By
Ken Schlapp
I
just couldn't handle a day off from Baseball, so I managed to find
my way inside of Candlestick Park. Although this stadium is now
known as 3Comm Park, I grew up with it as Candlestick Park or "The
Stick" so I will continue to refer to it by the original names. The
Stick was the home of the San Francisco Giants from 1960 until 1999
when the Giants moved into Pac-Bell Park. This stadium is  still the
home of the NFL's San Francisco 49ers. Thanks to the help of my
buddy Matt Angle here at ballparksofbaseball.com, I was able to find
a contact to give me a tour of the Stick.
I was very excited to have this opportunity to see the Stick. I
happened to be in San Francisco in 1999 during the last weekend that
the Giants played there and was even offered tickets, but I had
already made plans with friends and had to turn them down.
Therefore, I never got the chance to see a game here, but this
turned out to be just as fun. Just getting inside was pretty
interesting. I had plans to meet Mercedes (my tour guide) at the
entrance by the players' parking lot. When I got to the gate I told
the police officer what I was there for and he let me in without
asking for ID. Then I parked in the players' lot and walked right
inside took the elevator and found my way to Mike's (the stadium
manager) office. Note to Mike and Mercedes, you may want to check
with security to make sure nobody else gets in that easy.
From there it was all fun! Mercedes took me right down to the
field, where I got to walk around the field where my favorite
player, Willie McCovey starred for all those years! The only thing
was that the ground crew was in the process of preparing the field
for a soccer game and there weren't any foul poles or any other
Baseball signs around. The ground crew was busy at work, but still
interested in my journey. The most amusing thing about them was
that they volunteered their thoughts on Barry Bonds without my
 asking
and let's just say that none of them said a positive thing about
him. They were all happy that he no longer plays in the stadium
that they work for. During the remainder of this tour I was shown
various "Bonds only" sections such as the spot on the old wooden
bench in the Giants' dugout where only he was allowed to sit. I
also got to see the weight room that was built for Bonds and only
Bonds and was showed where his section was in the locker rooms
(which are now used by the 49ers). I was hoping that all the
negative stories about Bonds were overblown, but I even heard some
negative things about him from the people that worked at the Negro
Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City.
At times it was difficult to picture just how baseball fit into this
stadium, but then I had the opportunity to walk behind the removable
stands that are only down for football and soccer. These stands
haven't moved since 1999 and, per the ground crew, are not likely to
be movable again. But, when I walked behind the
stands I was able to see the old scoreboards that were used for
Giants games still intact, but not likely to ever be used again. I
know I wasn't watching a game, but I couldn't help but have a blast
walking around here. After my tour finished I even got to spend
about an hour just Bsing about Baseball with Mike in his office.
The most interesting thing there was the base on his wall signed by
all the Giants players that played in the last Baseball game at the
Stick in 1999.
Even after that I still couldn't get enough of Baseball, so I went
out to the former site of Seals Stadium, the Giants very first home
in San Francisco. The Giants played there first two West Coast
seasons at Seals Stadium, which was on 16th and Bryant. This
stadium was more well-known as the home of the San
Francisco Seals
of the Pacific Coast League from 1931 until 1957, when the Giants
took over. Unfortunately, there is nothing to mark that this was
the long time site of Baseball in San Francisco. However, just
across the street, the Double Play Bar & Grill does still exist, so
I went inside for a beer. This bar was the watering hole for many
fans both before and after games since 1909. You can now find loads
of sports memorabilia, including the top of the flagpole from Seals
Stadium, inside the Bar. Outside the bar you will find a sign on
the building that says "On Deck Seals Stadium".
Finally, I found my way to Left O'Doul's at 333 Geary Street by
Union Square. Lefty was a San Francisco native that was a star over
11 major league seasons as a pitcher and then as an outfielder (he
finished with a .349 career average), but is more remembered in this
city as the manager of the Seals from 1935 until 1951. There is
also plenty of Baseball memorabilia throughout the restaurant to
keep your eyes busy while you are enjoying your meal and the food
was pretty good too.
My only glitch on this day was poor flash card management. I had 2
flash cards with 128 MB of memory on each to store the digital
pictures I was taking throughout the trip. Each card can store
about 220 hi gh quality pictures, but since I was taking so many
pictures they were getting filled up pretty quickly. As backup, I
had 2 laptops to download the pictures to while freeing up space on
the flash cards. I, however, accidentally deleted the wrong flash
card and lost over a week worth of pictures from my journey. I
realized my dumb mistake right away and immediately removed the disk
before I could do any more damage. The card was made by Kingston
Technologies, so I called them right away to see if I could recover
the pictures, because I needed them for my articles and possibly a
book. Luckily for me, Larry Davis at Kingston Technologies felt that
he could help me. So I immediately sent the card to him via
overnight mail, where he was able to recover all my pictures, save
them on a CD, and provide me with a brand new flash card. The most
amazing thing though was that they did not charge me a dime! I am
in debt to them for their great save.
Bottom line - I had a total blast visiting the Stick, Seals Stadium,
and Lefty O'Doul's, but most importantly don't make the same mistake
that I did with your pictures. If you do, just contact Kingston
Technologies and hopefully they can help you like they did help me.
Basic trip facts:
Ø Old Stadium Sites visited - Candlestick Park and Seals Stadium
(Total - 8)
Ø Miles traveled - 56 via Car (Totals: Driving - 7,226, Subway - 20,
Air - 3,196, Total - 10,462)
Ø States, provinces and/or commonwealths passed through - California
(Totals: States - 24, Provinces - 0, Commonwealths - 1)
Ø Seats -Section N/A, Row N/A, Seat N/A (I had free reign of
stadium) - Walked all over
Ø Prices: Parking - $0 (I parked in players lot), Beer - N/A, Hot
Dog - N/A,
Program (including pencil) - N/A, Souvenir Soda Cup - N/A
Ø Credit Card giveaway - None
Ø First Pitch - 1:30 PM
Ø Attendance - 1
Ø Results - No Game
Ø Home team record to date - 7 wins, 7 losses
Ø Record of "team I was routing for" to date - 4 wins, 10 losses
Ø Lodging - Oakland, California |
